Water Scarcity

Much of the world does NOT have access to clean drinking water. In fact, consider the following:

In the developing world, 24,000 children under the age of five die every day from preventable causes like diarrhea… contracted from unclean water. That’s 8,760,000 children every year.

In just one day, more than 200 million hours of women’s time is consumed for the most basic of human needs… collecting water for domestic use.

3.3 Million people die from water related illnesses each year.

5 to 20 Million people die from hunger and starvation each year, largely due to lack of clean drinking water.

In the last decade, more people have died every year from hunger than in any single year of World War II.

780 million people lack access to an improved water source; approximately one in nine people.

Of the 60 million people added to the world’s towns and cities every year, most move to informal settlements (i.e. slums) with no sanitation facilities.

Surveys from 45 developing countries show that women and children bear the primary responsibility for water collection in the majority of households. This is time not spent working at an income-generating job, caring for family members, or attending school.